Word: armenians
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Inside, in a crowded courtroom, three young Azerbaijani defendants sat motionless as they listened to witnesses describe a violent clash between ethnic Armenians and ethnic Azerbaijanis that left 32 dead and 400 wounded in the Azerbaijani port city of Sumgait last February. Struggling to hold back tears, an aging Armenian woman described how she had watched an Azerbaijani mob burn a man to death in his automobile. A Russian doctor described the head < wounds he had found on the corpse of a man beaten to death with lead pipes...
...Serbs are not the only group in the Communist world that are undergoing a revival of nationalism. In the Soviet Union tensions are smoldering in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian enclave in the republic of Azerbaijan. Vigorous popular fronts have sprung up in the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Though sanctioned by the local Communist Parties, the movements boldly tested the very limits of glasnost...
...passions in Yerevan, where residents are still furious over Moscow's refusal last July to grant their petition to allow Armenia to annex Nagorno-Karabakh. Yerevan workers declared a city-wide strike, and thousands of protesters surged into Theater Square to chant "Sessiya! Sessiya!" (session) -- a call for the Armenian legislature to hold an emergency meeting to take up the annexation issue. Gone were the posters of Gorbachev that crowds carried earlier this year. "Things are different now," a protester said. Several demonstrators tore up their Communist Party cards...
More than 1,000 Soviet troops sealed off Lenin Square, which houses the Armenian Supreme Soviet Building. Three tanks circled the square and then drove off. Elsewhere, troops set up roadblocks on streets leading to and from Yerevan while others waited in armored personnel carriers at the edge of the city. "The violence is in Stepanakert," said an irate citizen. "Why do they need tanks here...
...unrest is placing Gorbachev in an increasingly difficult position. If the Soviet leader meets Armenian demands, he risks fanning nationalist sentiments that smolder across the country. But if he cannot resolve the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, opponents may argue that the strife exposes the dangers of letting Soviet citizens speak their minds so freely. Both sides may have a point. As Armenian protesters continued to speak out last week, some went so far as to call for Armenian secession from the Soviet Union unless Nagorno-Karabakh can be annexed...